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2025 Limits

Each year the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announces changes to loan limits based on changes to average home prices.  For 2025, loan limits for conforming and FHA loans are: Conforming or FHA: $806,500 Conforming Jumbo or FHA jumbo: $1,207,750 These numbers are increases from the 2024 numbers of $766k & $1,149k. A conforming loan…

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Prepayment

Prepaying will cut down on life of loan interest and pay off your loan more quickly. That’s because interest is charged each month based on your outstanding balance.  And so by paying your balance down early, you’re making subsequent monthly payments allocate more to principal and less to interest.  Prepaying does not lower your monthly…

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Escrow Analysis

Expect an escrow analysis once per year, mailed to you. Please be sure to read it to understand how your mortgage payment is changing. The escrow analysis looks back at property tax and insurance costs incurred over the last year.  It’ll recalculate what should be your monthly payment to your escrow based on that.  Escrow…

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Unsecured family loan

Both FHA loans and Home Possible loans (but not Home Ready loans) allow a relative to provide an unsecured loan for a buyer’s down payment or closing costs. Fannie Mae disallows loans from family members unless it’s secured against collateral. Learn more: https://alexjaffe.com/family-lending For a Home Possible loan, the loan term needs to be greater than…

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1st Time Advantage

Maryland Mortgage Program has numerous loan programs, and 1st Time Advantage is the most common Maryland Mortgage Program product we offer, because it comes with a down payment assistance loan of up to 5% of the loan amount.  This program is for first time buyers in Maryland and is available throughout the state.  1st Time…

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